MongabayThe Environmental Investigation Agency is praising in particular the enforcement initiatives against Inversiones La Oroza, the target of the biggest timber seizure in Peru's history. Peru's forestry sector deals with an estimated 80 percent of illegally sourced timber. This week's request is the first of its kind to be made under the timber verification provision of the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement.READ MORE

Woodworking NetworkPrices for global timber have declined dramatically over the past two years with the Global Sawlog Price Index (GSPI) falling 21.6 percent, according to Wood Resources International. Challenges in the global market, from Asia to Europe, putting a damper on demand include a variety of fundamental economic issues as well as the strengthening U.S. dollar.READ MORE

Penn State University via Phys.orgOver thousands of years, most forests in the eastern United States evolved with frequent fire, which promoted tree species and ecosystems that were both fire and drought resistant. In little more than a century, humans upset that balance, suggest researchers, who blame the change, in part, on the well-meaning efforts of Smokey Bear.
Since the 1930s, the composition of forests in the region has changed markedly, according to Marc Abrams, professor of forest ecology and physiology at Penn State. Drought-sensitive, fire-intolerant tree species, such as maple, birch and hemlock, have become more prominent, and drought-resistant, fire-adapted species, such as oak, hickory and pine, have declined.READ MORE

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Center for International Forestry ResearchThe most promising interventions to reduce emissions in tropical forest-rich countries like Indonesia, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) may not lie in the forest at all. Instead, those interventions might be right under our noses — in the food on our plates. This is because, as scientist Sarah Carter puts it, you cannot separate forests and agriculture.READ MORE

The Bourne CourierThe beetles are coming; here, there and everywhere, it won't be long, but it's no magical mystery tour. They're targeting pitch pines not Norwegian wood &mdash. Actually, while we speak of the Southern pine beetle, a devastating pest of pitch pines in New York and New Jersey, for now we can by with a little help from our friends at Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation's Division of Forest Health.READ MORE

Vermont Public RadioVermont's forest economy provides over 20,000 jobs in the state and generates over $3 billion in annual revenues. There are currently six forestry-related bills being considered by the State Legislature. They take on issues like timber theft and trespass, forest fragmentation, protection against nuisance lawsuits and tracking of logged timber.READ MORE

WAGM-TVThe Maine Legislature's State and Local Government Committee voted Wednesday to advance a bill introduced by Rep. Robert Saucier to encourage Maine taxpayer-funded institutions to purchase locally sourced wood pellets. Saucier introduced the legislation in response to news that a company that contracts with the University of Maine at Fort Kent is purchasing Canadian pellets. The university's two-year fuel contract for a biomass plant shared with the local school district requires two sources of wood pellets. The company, which provides fuel to the university, says that because Northeast Pellets is the only company in Aroostook County they purchase Canadian pellets as well.READ MORE

MongabayChina's log imports fell sharply in 2015, according to official customs data. As reported by the International Tropical Timber Organization's ITTO TTM Report: 20:4, China's log imports in 2015 amounted to 44.55 million cubic meters valued at $8 billion, down 13 percent in volume and 32 percent in value relative to a year earlier. The fall in imports is linked to China's slowing economy, which has led to global declines for most commodities.READ MORE

Biomass MagazineVehicle fuels made of plant waste are sustainable and climate friendly. Unfortunately the energy in stems, bark and twigs is locked up in cellulose, which is tough to crack open by the enzymes used to transform cellulose into sugar, which can then be fermented into alcohol. One family of enzymes, lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs), ease the transformation of cellulose. They are the way forward. Chemists at the University of Copenhagen have now taken a leap ahead in understanding how LPMOs work by showing how these enzymes bind to cellulose. This can be incredibly important for, among other things, the development and production of sustainable biofuels.READ MORE

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